As reported yesterday in the midst of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal where he was busted for his involvement in a prostitution ring, the same high-scale service he used has ties in Los Angeles as well as Washington, DC, Miami, London and Paris. Documents released yesterday showed that the Emperors Club VIP operated in two unnamed Los Angeles area hotels in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica according to CBS. The service is "an alleged......

Partying at The Standard Hotel's poolside | Photo by skampy via Flickr The City of West Hollywood's Planning Commission met the other night to discuss the Standard Hotel's request to extend their poolside hours to 1:30 a.m. from the current weekend midnight closing (closes at 10 p.m. on weekdays), keeping the hotel's poolside bar competitive with other Sunset Strip nightlife options. B-Side Blog attended the meeting to support the idea, but left the meeting......

Frommer's website for the Budget Travel magazine has an interesting, on-going feature where they ask "experts" from around the country to answer questions sent in from their readers in a chat. The experts have one hour to answer as many questions as they can. Afterwards the site adds links, corrects spelling (omg thank you!), adds a pretty picture, and puts it on their site. This morning yours truly was the special guest and the......

The Malibu fire is now 25% contained. At least 35 structures have been destroyed and thousands were forced to flee as wind whipped flames ravaged the coastal town. The cause of the blaze is not known at this time, but crews haven't ruled out CNN's Glen Beck. In other fire-related news, two people died this morning when a house fire ripped through their Pasadena home. The cause of the fire is unknown. A woman......

Let's start over, shall we? Disney is investing $1.1 billion into California (Mis)adventure, the ghost town of an amusement park next to Disneyland. The Rose Queen for the Pasadena Rose Parade was announced this morning and her name is Dusty. We just love that name for a girl. Staring now, there is no excuse for anyone of any age to ever go "I don't get blogging." The world's oldest blogger celebrated her birthday this......

Disneyland in Anaheim may have the exclusive and secret Club 33, but your chances of experiencing it is slim -- you've got to have the money, the "in" and the location (above the Blue Bayou, look for the door with the number 33 on it, then knock, someone might open it up... and yes, when we ate there, it was damn good). That's why Disney World in the "other" Orange County is much better......

"Constance" by Mr. J. Medeiros of Echo Park Being stuck on the Hollywood Freeway during rush hour, trapped in a metallic expanse of automobiles, counting the minutes of your life that you will never get back on the dashboard clock is a nasty predicament to be in...But that isn't the kind of traffic I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the human traffic -- the trafficking of people. Human cargo. Coerced labor. The exploited......

The folks at Omni Hotels realize that many of you are still hungering for an Apple iPhone, and they have two cool ways to feed you this week. First, each hotel location will be giving away a brand spanking new iPhone, and there is no purchase necessary. All you have to do to be entered in the sweepstakes is to get yourself down to our local Omni Hotel, which is located Downtown in California Plaza,......

Earlier this year, International Creative Management (ICM) and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) moved their offices from Beverly HIlls to within the city limits of Los Angeles in Century City. Score one for LA where expensive high power lunches turn in to tax revenue for city coffers (we're talking "a side of assorted mushrooms sells for $21 and a Wagyu rib-eye costs $98"). One problem though, Century City choices were slim for Hollywood agents: The......

Thousands of video game addicts, cosplayers and booth babe fans shed tears last year when the Entertainment Software Association announced that it would be scaling back the size and focus of future E3 Expos. The game industry and fan bacchanalia had previously attracted a record attendance of over 60,000 visitors and 400 companies in 2006. Instead of being held at LA's own Convention Center, the "more intimate" show will take place this year in......

If you’ve missed all the bright orange book ads and have ducked all the media coverage (New York, The New Yorker, Vogue), you’re one of the few readers who hasn’t heard of The Manny, alleged to be this summer’s Devil Wears Prada: chick-lit for the beach, right-coast division. It’s a simple story: Glam Park Avenue working wife juggles her high-powered network news job, her sullen, money-obsessed lawyer husband, and three adorable children. She hires......

This weekend we were enjoying televised entertainment when we happened to notice Prince doing a Verizon ad. Does Prince even do ads? Whatever, it worked on us, we watched, we enjoyed, it was great. Until the end when it seemed like the ad company totally ripped off LA gossip blog Pink is the New Blog by stenciling a light-colored purple "Be A Music Hunter" on its final image. Unless PITNB's Trent is being paid......

Could it be? Did someone finally out ArcLight the ArcLight? If one of The Standard hotels built a theater, it would look like the new Landmark. The most accurate way of describing it is “boutique”. The Landmark is all about the visual angles; sloping fixtures light the theaters and give a completely different feeling of space than you would expect for a “mall theater”. Angled walls line the hallways, and an angled ceiling compliments......

If you've lived in L.A. for more than two years and haven't experienced wine country, it's time to take the trip. We finally did, making the three-hour trek to Paso Robles, and now can't believe we'd put it off this long. Paso Robles, known for fabulous reds, has over 170 wineries and is the most spacious wine region in California (610,000 acres). Sounds overwhelming, but the town is really easy to get around, even......

Besides being adorable and ridiculously talented, Annie Clark aka St. Vincent is a total smart ass. If we hadn't read her interview with John Vanderslice (who she is opening for tomorrow night at the Largo), we might have mistaken her flippant humor for dry insults. But no, she's being funny and we love her for that. So we asked the former Polyphonic Spree multi-instrumentalist some questions that would throw her, but it appears that......

Last October, if you recall, LAist took a road trip around the country. For 40 days we drove an old car around the nation and slept in hotels and motels and even at our friends' homes and the first thing we asked before we booked a room or accepted a spare guest room was, "how's your connection?" And even though it was 2006, we were shocked at how many people we're all, "what connection?" Your......

After a packed day of panels and Organic To Go food, we're looking forward to Sunday's LA Times Book Festival offerings. Here's why: Food Situation: Bountiful. If there weren't so many book booths and authors running about, we'd think this was a cooking festival. Your food choices are endless and several food courts are setup all over campus so you'll never have to utter the painful festival sentence:"Where is the food?" It's everywhere! Line Situation:......

#68 50-year-old dead baby found in Del Ray Beach in a suitcase hidden in another suitcase - AP #69 Labor camp owner in Jacksonville given 30 years - WRAL #70 Despite hosting two teams from the chilly midwest, Miami hotels are not sold out a week before the Super Bowl, some say because the prices are way too high - Miami.com #71 Man who stole three vehicles including Crystal Gayle's tourbus found at the......

The other day, LAist received an inquiry via email about our picks for the restaurants that have something inedible (but, perhaps indelible) on the menu: A great waterfront view. We did a little culling, and have come up with the following lowdown. Our favorite spot for drinks and light appetizers is Splashes Lounge at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach. We loved watching the sun go down and having the waves pound......

#32 - White powder found at two South Florida courthouses. Money quote: "The substance is being tested, but does not appear to be a hazardous, McInerny said." - Miami Herald #33 - Three masked men with knives go to the valet parking line of one of the largest rare coin shows in the world at one of the busiest luxury hotels in Orlando and walk off with $4 million worth of coinage. - International......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading......

Click around LAist. We don't really listen to a lot of new-fangled country music. We love the oldies: Cash, Willie, Waylon, Hank Sr., Patsy. But when we heard that NBC refused to run the ad for the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, we ran to the theater to see what the fuss was all about. This is a great film. That's why NBC didn't like it. They hate things that are good.......

Dubbed Los Angeles' "electronic Stonehenge," the pylons were unveiled six years ago in time for the Democratic National Convention. They offered viewers an effervescent glow that could be seen by airline passengers from 3,000 feet. But by 2004, the complicated lighting system began to malfunction. Some pylons blacked out while others were splotchy. To fix them, electricians had to hang upside-down in harnesses. Nearby businesses and hotels began complaining that the defective lights were......

LAist is on the road seeing the country the way it was meant to be seen: quickly and via roadside motels. Currently we are leaving Minnesota on our way to Chicago. But before we left the twin cities we HAD to see this thing called the Mall of America. The parking lots are named after states, and guess what the first level parking lot is? Thats right, LA. No, we mean California. Hawaii seemed......

I’m all for the Hollywood revival, but this time the powers that be have taken it one step too far. Tonight, low and behold, is the last night for Daddy’s. For those of us that have spent many a night, many a birthday party and drank many a cocktail at this Hollywood bar, it is a true loss. Daddy’s is a popular bar, but a place where the bartenders, especially Brandon, actually cared about......

Now a “career woman", Leilani Wertens searches for the perfect meal during her lunch hour in an oft neglected part of Los Angeles—the newly revitalized downtown district. Read about her weekly culinary adventures on LAist. by Leilani Wertens After schlepping up and down a two-block stretch of 5th street looking for a restaurant that apparently no longer exists, I stumbled upon Uncle John’s Ham ‘n’ Eggs tucked into a row of crumbling brick hotels.......

LAist was on the road last weekend – to the OC and Laguna Beach. While we didn’t run into Kristin Cavalleri and company, we did manage to have a good time despite the fact that we’re a) not rich; b) not blonde and c) not driving a 7 Series. Now, here’s a good tip if you want to do a relaxing summer getaway to Laguna: Stay in Irvine. Most of the hotels in Laguna......

In what must surely be a blow to video gaming enthusiasts, scantily-clad women, fans of scantily-clad women and, of course, the City of Los Angeles, the Entertainment Software Association announced Monday that they are going to scale back the size and scope of E3 convention next year. In fact, the convention, the video gaming industry's largest, most-likely won't be at the LA Convention Center either. Instead, it will take place at various hotels around......

Maybe we're nervous nellies, but LAist would feel a little queasy about investing millions of dollars on a huge tall shiny skyscraper in downtown LA. Isn't it a good thing that we really don't have any landmark towers for the evil-doers to f with? Well the LA Times reports today that there are quite a few companies who aren't at all nervous about building a 54-story, 2 million square foot neighbor for the Staples......

Since we all live here we don't need to go to hotels, although a hotel bar once in a while isn't so bad. Especially when it's to soak up some nice high-end design that's popped up in a brand new spot. And when we visited Apartment Therapy LA today, we went a little gaga for the new Chamberlain Hotel in West Hollywood. The public spaces are a buffed-up movie-version of Regency style — your......